TogetherVA-Entertainment

  • Home
  • Tidewater
  • Classifieds
  • Lifestyle
  • Featured
  • Entertainment
  • Interview
  • Politics
  • News & Information
  • Subscribe






  • Film
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Literature
  • Television
  • Bars

Make Your Summer Read Worth Your While

Thinking that July and August are the absolute hardest months to concentrate on work we felt perhaps it might be the ideal time to remind the community that while your comrades may be idling away the hours staring out the window daydreaming about the summer fun they will try and cram in over the weekend, or what fun they are missing out on while sitting in their cubicles, now is the perfect time to concentrate on taking your career goals to the next level and get the step up that could make all the difference for your future.

The summer reads have traditionally been innocent enough fluff and mind numbing escapism but what if you were to use some of that down time that would otherwise be devoted to the latest fiction bestseller or Oprah Book of the Month to make some real headway in your career? You planned on hours of relaxing on the beach with a book anyway so why not make it a book worth your reading? The work load is a little lighter and there is time enough to get in a few pages of a real 'how to get ahead without really trying' guide to business without shortchanging your dip in the pool time. You might even find you can steal away a few minutes on THE MAN'S clock to make headway and get yourself one step closer to being THE MAN. True enough you will not be the cool kid at the water cooler at the end of the long weekend chattering on about the latest Oprah recommended read or the socially conscious brainiac who reread a classic and has decided to relate it to the current social inadequacies plaguing society droning on whether anyone is actually listening or not. However you might just be the one who as end of the year reviews approach have the insight to make the grade or earn the next rung up on the corporate ladder.

Gquot For my fellow GLBT community I recommend a 2006 publication that although having quiet reviews did receive a nod when named to Harvard Business Review's 2006 Reading List. Suggesting a book that is nearly 5 years old for a summer read perhaps is not 'on the pulse' of me but then again if you haven't read it its all new to you anyway. Kirk Snyder's The G Quotient is a must read if you have any designs on stepping up the game on the corporate courts.


The value of this read can be found in the results of the 5 years of research and study that prompted the book. Results show a 35% higher level of employee engagement, job satisfaction, and workplace morale, not to mention results of a greater employee loyalty quotient and individual productivity factor that organizations under the leadership of white-collar gay males have experienced by comparison to their straight counterparts. It is proof that today's employees are responding to a new type of organizational leader. It is a good guide to how you may just find your own G quotient to be an asset after all. Now the simple fact is that this is not simply a book for how a gay person can optimize their orientation to get ahead but it is a lesson in how management styles that are more often gay-typical can be utilized by any professional regardless of orientation. Its simply a new approach to getting the job done that seems to be working ... at least 35% more effectively. So charge up the spare battery for your I-pad and head to the beach making your summer read


The G Quotient: Why Gay Executives are Excelling as Leaders.... And What Every Manager Needs to Know. By Kris Snyder.

Posted at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reblog (0) | | Digg This | |

Theatrical Theatricale, Or Yes We Can-Can, the Virginia Stage Company's Annual Spring Gala

T-T

The Wells Theatre in downtown Norfolk at Tazewell Street and Monticello Avenue opened doors on August 27, 1913 and today at 97 years strong the theater is still a jewel in Virginia's theatrical arts and entertainment crown. 

Since 1979 The Virginia Stage Company has resided at the landmark theatre and has gained national recognition as the premiere professional theatre of Southeastern Virginia

Recently I had the pleasure of attending (and helping out just a little with) Theatrical Theatricale, Or Yes We Can-Can, the Virginia Stage Company's Annual Spring Gala. The event, beautifully, charmingly and flawlessly executed by the newly acquired Director of Development, Barbara Lipskis, was a coup De gras! et un tour Du force!  This year's Gala was all that is France, French and Fantastic; food, wine and sophisticated wit.

 At the Monticello Box Office entrance, to be greeted by men on stilts and Can-Can girls was festive and certainly unexpected. Barbara costumed a la Can-Can herself, complete with boa, greeted each guest to the gala with that wonderful smile of hers. In house, Le maître de la Maison, VSC's very own Directeur Artistique, Chris Hanna, in glorious evening suit and chops offered champagne and chambord, impressing with a most charming French accent. Even before the festivities of Can-Can girls and hors d'oeuvres and mimes, fortune tellers, caricaturists and the fantastic food catered by Omar's Carriage House and of course Can-Can! We 'strolled' the silent auction in the gallery and lobby. Beautiful displays of donated items for silent auction from Hampton Roads businesses, showing their support for the arts and for VSC, filled the theater. Also on display and for bid were a great many items from 'backstage' including memorabilia, posters and playbills of past performances from the 30 year old company including live auction items which can only be obtained from the creative staff of Virginia Stage Company.  The proceeds from the evening's silent auction, donations and endowments, festivities and fanfare, provide for the expenses of the up coming year of theater productions. 

GALA 358The Virginia Stage Company, a not-for-profit, professional resident theater company, enriches, educates and entertains the region by creating and producing theatrical art of the highest quality and worthy of national prominence. Their continuing mission to bring the lively arts to Hampton Roads is made possible through donations, subscription sales and community support.

 I saw Barbara Lipskis again a week later as I walked the Stockley Garden Art Show. I

GALA 405 found her and Virginia Stage Associate volunteer, Mrs. Elaine Brown,  reaching out to the community to remind them of their love of theater and invite them to the 2010-11 season. I was reminded that the theater is always alive in a community and it is the community that brings life to the theater. It is the life of the Director of Development to grow the theater to involve the community, no small task in these difficult financial times when theater is considered a luxury. Theater is more than a luxury it is a vital part of society.

GALA 179 The tradition of live theatre and performance for nearly 100 years here in Virginia is forever at the brink of extinction. All the theatre needs to survive is you and your guest for one evening enjoying a night of live performance, fun and glamour. Please go see a show or contribute, a donation of your time is a great asset to the theatre and a really wonderful way to expand your circle of friends. And the theatre is all about friends and family and le joie du vive, the company a family and with each performance they welcome you into their home and provide for memories and a magical experience. To learn how to become a member of the Virginia Stage Company, for tickets to enjoy a show or to volunteer your time visit the Virginia Stage Company's website www.vastage.com

The exciting upcoming season 2010-2011 will feature  two world premieres, including  SCKBSTD – a new musical by Bruce Hornsby, The New Pink by Chris Hanna which depicts the comedic survival of a retired couple during todays’ economic crisis, plus a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. The Last 5 Years by Jason Robert  Brown puts a whole new spin on romance, and the perennial family favorite of Christmas Carole returns just in time for the holiday season. The last play of  August Wilson’s  series, Radio Golf, will conclude the 3nd season. There really is nothing quite so memorable as taking in a show and the walk home after excited or moved by a performance, the talk of the cast and sets as you ready for bed and the next morning the feeling is still so alive that all day at the office you find yourself talking about it. That is the magic of theatre, that is the power of live performance, and experiencing live storytelling in the most intimate environment of The Wells theatre.  Be a part of it. See a show, become involved, send a young person to their very first show - theatre is wonderful. Of the many great things membership entails saving with season tickets is for myself the most appealing (after the shows themselves). With season tickets even if you cannot make every show the tickets are a great gift to pass on to someone and excite them about the theatre. 




  Tnpby Chris Hanna October 26- November 14, 2010 World Premiere! When the "new economy" wipes out their retirement funds, a desperate middle-class couple comes up with a wild plan to live out their golden years in comfort. A series of crazy mishaps combined with smart banter add up to a timely new comedy by VSC's Artistic Director Chris Hanna.


 


Posted at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reblog (0) | | Digg This | |








  • Editor's blog